337 foreign companies registered in last two years: Government

New Delhi, Jul 22 As many as 337 foreign companies were registered in the country in last two years with Maharashtra and Delhi together accounting for nearly 200 of them.

Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal informed the Lok Sabha today that there were 4,358 foreign companies doing business in the country as on July 14.

In 2014 and 2015, a total of 337 foreign companies were registered and out of them 96 were in Maharashtra. As many as 93 such entities were registered in Delhi during the same time, according to Meghwal.

Out of the 337 companies, 206 were registered under the business services sector. To a query on whether registration rules for foreign companies have been relaxed in the last three years, Meghwal replied in the negative.

In a separate written reply, Corporate Affairs Minister Arun Jaitley said the Market Research and Analysis Unit (MRAU) of the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO) has submitted "five reports covering 196 companies during 2015-16" to the Ministry. "Investigation has been ordered involving 16 companies," he said.

MRAU prepares research reports based on information received from various resources. The minister also said a number of measures have been taken to check recurrence of corporate frauds.

These include "increasing application of technology for early detection of frauds through data analysis, surveillance and usage of forensic tools," he added.